Against the creeping twilight, figures made their way between tombstones, seeking a vividness of history and legend among the granite and the graves.
The fourth annual Historical Ghost Walk was Saturday evening in Woodland Cemetery. Sponsored by the Lawrence County Historical Society, the stories of the area's earlier times was told by costumed volunteers standing at the burial sites of some of Lawrence County's most notable- and infamous- individuals. Wealth, fame, mystery, and even perhaps murder, spectators lined up to hear accounts of founding families, lost loves and Ironton in its grandest and most glorious days.
Naomi Deer portrayed Nannie Kelley Wright as Gerald Deer and Travis Cade sat nearby, portraying Wright's first husband, Lindsay, and son, Lindsay, Jr., respectively. Wright, known both as a successful industrialist (thought to be the only woman ironmaster) and a lady of immense fortune (she made numerous trips abroad and during World War II kept diamonds in a teacup), was representative of an era when Iron was indeed the master of the local economy and she presided at the top of the socioeconomic ladder- a lofty position in those days for the fairer sex.
?She was a woman before her time,? Deer said of Wright. ?Women in those days were here for one reason and that was to have children. But she was a businesswoman, and probably the only woman ironmaster. She was years ahead of her time.?
J.D. Crockrel and Jacquetta Dufore portrayed James and Lavina Ditcher. James Ditcher, known as ?The Red Fox,? helped an estimated 3,000 escaped slaves find freedom via the Underground Railroad.
While the Ditchers' story is one of triumph, it is also one of terror and was a testament of less tolerant times.
Lavina Ditcher narrowly missed a bullet while standing in the doorway of her home once and Ditcher's service to his country was in ?the colored unit? of the union army, Crockrel and Dufore told the crowd. Still, they told of a faith that sustained James in his mission to bring slaves from the southern states to the north and freedom.
?The Lord is a deliverer,? Dufore told the crowd. ?The Lord will deliver.?
The ghost walk afforded glimpses into both ordinariness and splendor. Deer told the crowds that Wright often locked her second husband in the basement when he went on drinking binges and told visitors he was out of town. Dufore told crowds James Ditcher, though a valiant Christian, often let a curse word slip.
The ghost walk was both history lesson and a dose of local pride. Steve Duty portrayed U.S. Congressman Thomas Albert Jenkins, who was known as ?Mr. Ohio River? for his efforts to improve life along the river. Doris Higgins portrayed his wife, Mabel, who gave money to local churches. The Jenkins' hailed from Ironton and are lie together in a tomb at the cemetery.
?He was known as a man of the people, for the people,? Higgins told the crowd.
The ghost walk stories fascinated people like Tammy Noble and Mary Friend, of Ironton, who came with family members for the first time.
?This one was good,? Friend said as she walked away from the gravesite of Martha Ellen Blockson Johnson, portrayed by Gail Webb. ?I liked that one.?
Johnson was the local woman who served as inspiration for the Civil War-era song ?Lorena.? Webb even sang a few bars of the song and got applause afterward.
Noble agreed. ?It was awesome, very interesting,? she said.
?I didn't know some of this before I came,? Friend added. ?This has been educational.?
Melissa Spillman, of Ironton, who brought her daughters Tomi, 9 and Jackie, 11.
?I just thought it would be interesting,? she said. ?It's a pretty place here anyway, just walking through the cemetery.?
And who else walks through the cemetery besides those ghost walk participants? Bob Cleary, portraying the late Dr. Joseph Lowry, told the crowds the spirits of the murdered doctor and his wife, Sarah, are thought to lurk among the tombstones, staying, though, within the gates that separate the shadows of the cemetery from the rest of the world.
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